The shale oil obtained from oil shale has the similar properties to crude oil, and accordingly, the shale oil is highlighted as next generation petroleum resources. A method for recovering crude oil components from the oil shale is classified into a method for retorting the oil shale through mining and a method for heating oil shale buried under the ground. The retorting method is also classified into a method for charging the oil shale in a reactor to heat the oil shale from the outside, a method for conducting pyrolysis of oil shale through the contact of combustion gas in a reactor, and a method for conducting pyrolysis of oil shale through solid-solid phase contact between a heated solid medium and heated oil shale.
The pyrolysis method adopts heating of non-conductive oil shale, and as a result, a large portion of kerogen components are converted into noncondensable gas, not into shale oil. Therefore, if the yield of crude oil components is calculated in terms of the volatile matters contained in the oil shale, it is just under 40%, which is very low (See U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,708, U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,250, U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,349, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,500,517).
According to the conventional methods for recovering the crude oil components through the direct or indirect heating of the oil shale, the energy load per unit of crude oil production is large, and pollutants and carbon dioxide are emitted from the combustion process of the organic components of the residual matters. Therefore, there is a definite need for the development of an eco-friendly crude oil recovery apparatus and method capable of improving a quantity of crude oil produced.
So as to remove the above-mentioned problems, accordingly, a heavy oil recovery apparatus and method is filed by the same applicant as the invention, wherein kerogen extraction is performed in the form of heavy oil, not in the form of polymer, at a lower temperature in the range of 200 to 400° C. than the pyrolysis temperature of the oil shale of 500° C., and most of volatile matters in the oil shale are converted into crude oil components, thus drastically increasing the yield of the crude oil components and decreasing the energy load per unit of crude oil production (See Korean Patent Laid-open Publication Nos. 2013-0025437 and 2013-0066913).